Once upon a time there was this man
Who fasten on my lapels
And desperately spewed out his tale;
Would not let go until his story began:
I am sitting in fear and trembling
In the ante-room of Hell.
Bewildered. How did I arrive at this fearful place?
What brought me here, and please tell,
What keeps me here?
What compulsion glues me to this chair?
I look fearfully about and saw
That an attempt had been made to provide
The appearance of normalcy.
Human-like semblances of office employees
Go through the motions of cataloguing and filing.
When will they appear in their actual forms
And quit the cat-and-mouse make-believe
That is almost worse than the grim reality?
I have been searching my memory
Try to recall what sins could have been
The inducement to land me in this hot seat.
Surely the petty offenses I have perpetrated
Can’t be enough to force me to face damnation.
And look! There are two small children
Playing near my chair. How could such innocence
Be liable to the awful judgement that portends
From the custodians of abode of evil apparitions?
My brow begins to show the drops of fear-sweat
That has collected
In harmony with the truth my entire body is experiencing
Ever since my arrival at this unfortunate place.
Oh God! What have I done?
What can I do to overcome
This terrible decree?
Oh no! See!
There is a demon looking straight at ME!
This is it! I’m a goner for sure!
She craftily smiles, and knowingly announces
“Mr. Hailpern, the dentist will see you now.”
LETTER TO A GRANDCHILD
Dear Joshua,
I hate to reveal a secret that would lower your Zadah’s estimation in your young eyes,
But, I must reveal that I do not like the idea of going to the dentist periodically.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.